Box Office: October Top 10

November 4, 2013 - By Alex

With about as much money as the rest of the top 5 combined, Gravity is not just October’s top grosser but the biggest to ever open this month. Leading three out of the month’s four weekends and taking a third of the overall business, Gravity absolutely dominated the box office. Here are the 10 highest earning movies of October in North America.

1.Gravity $206 million ($219.2M) – Alfonso Cuaron took a simple idea, $100 million, Sandra Bullock, George Clooney and a few other actors (I really do mean few) and made nothing short of a masterpiece. Sure, Gravity has its share of inconsistencies or contrivances, but those are there to move the plot. They stick out to some because everything else is so well done and it feels real, well, at least until you start thinking about some of the events a bit more. So my advice is enjoy Gravity as a sci-fi and don’t over-think every detail on the screen.

2.Captain Phillips $74 million ($82.5M) – Tom Hanks gets back in the saddle with this powerful drama directed by Paul Greengrass and based on a true story. Coming after mediocre performers Green Zone for Paul Greengrass and Cloud Atlas for Tom Hanks, Captain Phillips is a welcomed hit for both.

3.Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 $66.6 million ($106.2M) -This animated sequel opened in the last week of September so naturally made most of its money in October. Should run out of meatballs at $115 million or so, slightly below the original’s $124.8 million final tally.

4.Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa $41.5 million ($62M) – The only movie of the month that managed to steal the top spot from Gravity, Bad Grandpa is a surprisingly solid hit that could spawn a few sequels. Now the Jackass series was always big but Bad Grandpa is already running ahead of Jackass: Number Two at the same point in its run, unheard of for a spin-off.

5.Carrie $28.5 million ($31.9M) – The remake that couldn’t, Carrie disappointed at the box office despite being the only horror to open in what has historically been a good month for the genre.

6.Prisoners $20.1 million ($59.9M) – Another September release, Prisoners is here only because of how slow October really was.

7.Escape Plan $19.3 million ($21.6M) – Seems I wasn’t the only to pass on this action flick and wait for its home release. Sad to say this but The Expendables is about the only thing these old timers have left in their careers (for now). I might need to see how Grudge Match does before passing final judgement on Stallone.

8.Runner Runner $19 million ($19.1M) – The Town or Argo this was not for Ben Affleck at the box office. But hey, at least he has those, right? Meanwhile Justin Timberlake hasn’t opened anything particularly big stateside recently.

9.Rush $15 million ($26.4M) – Racing movies that are about the actual motorsport and not tuned cars and girls in skimpy clothes tend to not do particularly great business. When said motorsport is Formula 1, well, not even Ron Howard and Chris Hemsworth can turn it into a box office hit, sadly. Again a September release (which didn’t even make the top 10 that month).

10.Don Jon $14.2 million ($23.8M) – Joseph Gordon-Levitt makes his directorial debut with this comedy which opened in September to good enough numbers ( for its $6 million budget that is).

November is already looking to be a much stronger month with Thor: The Dark World and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire alone expected to gross more then all of October put together. Then there’s Ender’s Game (already opened to a solid $28 million), remake Delivery Man starring Vince Vaughn and Disney animation Frozen (which looks and feels very much like Tangled, in a good way) to name just a few expected big hitters.

Now name your favorite October movie and don’t forget to also mention which release you’re looking forward the most in November. For me (of the movies I’ve seen) Gravity won October while Thor: The Dark World is my most anticipated November release (being a Marvel fan and all).